Ilhan Omar Responds To Minneapolis Catholic School Shooting In New Interview

4 months ago

During a Sunday interview with CNN's Brianna Keilar, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) addressed the Minneapolis' Wednesday Catholic school shooting.

Transcript

00:00I mean, it's really unfortunate that we have people, you know, like him, speaking on this.

00:08You know, at one moment, he talks about the fact that the evil, murderous person who took

00:15two angels from us and harmed our community for a really long time, he talks about their

00:21transgenderness, and then he says that shouldn't really matter.

00:23At one moment, he attacks you for fake news in addressing actual statistics.

00:31Another moment, he talks about needing, you know, mental health support, making sure communities

00:38have threat assessment.

00:39You point out that DHS has taken away those resources, and our communities don't have that

00:46kind of support.

00:47And then he screams at you and says it's not the responsibility of the federal government

00:51to assist the states.

00:53These people are all over the place because they want to deflect from the reality, which

00:58is that there was someone who came in to that school through the window and assassinated two

01:09beautiful angels as they prayed and put 14 other children in the hospital who are still

01:18fighting for their lives.

01:20And it is important for us to make sure that we are offering a slew of solutions.

01:26One is to make sure that we are getting rid of assault weapons in our community.

01:32Two, that we are addressing mental health issues, if there are some.

01:38And, yes, as a community, it is important for us to say something when we see something, when

01:45somebody is exhibiting signs that there could be a problem ahead, that we talk to them, that

01:51we get them the assistance they need, and that, yes, we do alert law enforcement.

01:55But this is not the moment to point fingers at people.

02:00It is time for us to come together and figure out what the actual solutions are so that there

02:05are no more dead angels in our communities.

02:07You are calling for this assault weapons ban, which is something that Democrats have pushed

02:15for for years.

02:16But even when your party has had control of the White House and both chambers of Congress,

02:21they still can't get this done.

02:23They couldn't get it done when Barack Obama had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

02:29Why is that?

02:30And why should voters think it would be any different if Democrats had control again?

02:35Well, I do hope that this moment is not about Democrats or Republicans, that this is not

02:43about our political ideology, but it is about figuring out how do we safeguard the lives of

02:49our children.

02:50You know, Brianna, as a mother, I know that my youngest one, who's still in public school,

02:58stories about an assailant coming into her school and taking her life or the life of her friends

03:04and classmates.

03:06I know that the parents that have experienced this horrific attack are never going to forget

03:13that moment.

03:14Some of the children that have been impacted have younger siblings and older siblings who

03:20will carry this moment with them.

03:22This is about us as Americans coming together, saying this is not the kind of trauma that we

03:28want to continue to experience.

03:30I think the problem is that we oftentimes look at this issue as a Democratic issue or a Republican

03:35issue.

03:36We ask, you know, its side to have an opinion.

03:40But this is about our children.

03:41Our children don't have a political ideology.

03:44They deserve the right to grow up, to be adults, to raise their own children and contribute to

03:49the future of this country.

03:50AMNA NAWAZ- That funding that we were talking about, the DHS funding cut, was to shooting

03:56prevention programs in Minnesota ahead of this attack.

04:01The effect may be very much more future-leaning than affecting the past here.

04:06But you were one of six Democratic lawmakers who called for that funding to be restored.

04:11On Friday, a DHS spokesperson defended the cut, saying that it was nothing more than a slush

04:16fund for left-wing ideologies.

04:20What is your response to that?

04:21Can you explain how that money was actually used?

04:24AMNA NAWAZ- Yeah, I mean, that money is the kind of money that goes to fusion centers

04:31to make sure that they are identifying threats and sharing information.

04:36That's the kind of money that, you know, our county sheriff's office might utilize.

04:42That's the kind of money that MPD, our police department, might be able to utilize to hire

04:50an analysis, to look at the data, to look at where there might be vulnerabilities.

04:56We're also talking about resources that go to schools and places of worship to make sure

05:03that they have the ability to fortify, that they have the ability to look at where their

05:09vulnerabilities are, maybe have cameras around.

05:14This is a resource that we have been fighting for a really long time to try to make sure

05:18that we up the amount of resources that are available, because we have seen a huge uptick

05:24in the last 20 years or so in attacks to our schools, to our public venues, and especially

05:31places of worship.

05:33There are people who are talking about the fact that this is, you know, in Minnesota, the first

05:38time that we have experienced a Catholic church, a Catholic school being targeted.

05:44And it is important that that community now has the ability to have the kind of resources

05:50that mosques and synagogues and other places of worship over the years have been able to

05:56access.

05:57As threats are posed on our communities, we have to be willing to say, here is some resource

06:03that you can utilize to make sure future harm doesn't come to you.

06:06And others who are afraid to go about their day know that their place of worship or their

06:12school now has future resources that they can rely on, because as people of faith, it is

06:19really important that we do everything that we can to safeguard that ability for people to

06:24show up to worship without fearing death.

06:27Congresswoman, we are out of time, but I just want to ask you really quickly, before

06:32you go, you hear Sebastian Gork and others zeroing in on this transgender issue.

06:37I know Democrats look at that. They say it's not in good faith. At the same time, is it

06:43perhaps important to look at whether that was a factor in this shooter's motivation?

06:49I have always said it's really important for us to look at every factor, so that we can

06:57understand what happened, what signs were missed, and have the ability in the future to prevent

07:04these kinds of senseless deaths.

07:06Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, thank you so much for being with us.

Ilhan Omar Responds To Minneapolis Catholic School Shooting In New Interview

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